Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography
Early career academics (ECAs) are negatively affected by the neoliberal university which encourages performativity, competition and a ‘publish or perish’ mentality. In this paper a group of four ECAs in the Aotearoa New Zealand context explore and navigate the neoliberal university through a collabo...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-10-01
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| Series: | Kōtuitui |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/1177083X.2025.2527229 |
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| author | Andrew Doyle Janina Suppers Emma Cunningham Brent Wagner |
| author_facet | Andrew Doyle Janina Suppers Emma Cunningham Brent Wagner |
| author_sort | Andrew Doyle |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Early career academics (ECAs) are negatively affected by the neoliberal university which encourages performativity, competition and a ‘publish or perish’ mentality. In this paper a group of four ECAs in the Aotearoa New Zealand context explore and navigate the neoliberal university through a collaborative autoethnography. Collectively, we adopt Barnett’s [2018. The ecological university: A feasible utopia. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.] five dimensions of ecologies framework to study our own experiences. Findings suggest that as ECAs, we seek connection to academia, experience workload and power imbalance, and actively learn how to navigate roles. We also describe how our research group created a supportive environment within the competitive space of academia that fostered feelings of belonging and offered support in navigating the university ecology. Furthermore, working in initial teacher education, as a high service discipline, created unique challenges for us such as high service and teaching roles which may negatively impact ECAs. Through this lens of initial teacher education, we in turn make recommendations for universities to better support early career academics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7ddd8c4706e44859a2274633a714a2d6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1177-083X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-10-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Kōtuitui |
| spelling | doaj-art-7ddd8c4706e44859a2274633a714a2d62025-08-20T03:59:25ZengTaylor & Francis GroupKōtuitui1177-083X2025-10-012041321133710.1080/1177083X.2025.2527229Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnographyAndrew Doyle0Janina Suppers1Emma Cunningham2Brent Wagner3Te Kura Toi Tangata – School of Education, University of Waikato, Waikato, Aotearoa New ZealandTe Kura Toi Tangata – School of Education, University of Waikato, Waikato, Aotearoa New ZealandTe Kura Toi Tangata – School of Education, University of Waikato, Waikato, Aotearoa New ZealandTe Kura Toi Tangata – School of Education, University of Waikato, Waikato, Aotearoa New ZealandEarly career academics (ECAs) are negatively affected by the neoliberal university which encourages performativity, competition and a ‘publish or perish’ mentality. In this paper a group of four ECAs in the Aotearoa New Zealand context explore and navigate the neoliberal university through a collaborative autoethnography. Collectively, we adopt Barnett’s [2018. The ecological university: A feasible utopia. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.] five dimensions of ecologies framework to study our own experiences. Findings suggest that as ECAs, we seek connection to academia, experience workload and power imbalance, and actively learn how to navigate roles. We also describe how our research group created a supportive environment within the competitive space of academia that fostered feelings of belonging and offered support in navigating the university ecology. Furthermore, working in initial teacher education, as a high service discipline, created unique challenges for us such as high service and teaching roles which may negatively impact ECAs. Through this lens of initial teacher education, we in turn make recommendations for universities to better support early career academics.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/1177083X.2025.2527229Early career academics (ECAs)university ecologyneoliberalisationinitial teacher education |
| spellingShingle | Andrew Doyle Janina Suppers Emma Cunningham Brent Wagner Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography Kōtuitui Early career academics (ECAs) university ecology neoliberalisation initial teacher education |
| title | Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography |
| title_full | Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography |
| title_fullStr | Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography |
| title_full_unstemmed | Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography |
| title_short | Early career academics navigating the ecology of the university: a collaborative autoethnography |
| title_sort | early career academics navigating the ecology of the university a collaborative autoethnography |
| topic | Early career academics (ECAs) university ecology neoliberalisation initial teacher education |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/1177083X.2025.2527229 |
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